Beyond encrypting business and personal data and holding it hostage, ransomware damages Americans' confidence in infrastructure, said Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, a nonprofit forum chartered by the U.S. Congress, which sponsored a recent press briefing on the topic. Despite the availability of cybersecurity software, experts expressed doubts about a technological solution, instead advocating for stronger diplomatic efforts aimed at law enforcement cooperation in Russia, where most of the ransomware attacks originate. A more helpful deterrent would be government action to control cryptocurrency, the crooks' preferred ransom payment method, said the other expert on the call, Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator and the former CTO of CrowdStrike.